I've been a FrightFest audience member for a few years now, it's the movie highlight of my year. 4 days of horror and other genre movies, with a load of friendly fellow horror fans, all packed into the same cinema screen. In between movies, you stand around outside, chatting, bigging up or slagging off the movie you just saw, and just having a laugh. Inside, there are the screenings, intros, Q & As, trailers, sneak peeks, short films, and loads of other fun things.

This year though, because Severance is out that weekend, I've got some mates coming over from Dublin. We're all going to check out various screenings over the weekend, and drink a lot. It means I'll have to skip most of the FF this year, but I'm incredibly chuffed to see that there'll be a special FF showing of Severance - I'll be able to see my movie, with my best friends, on the opening night, with the best audience in the world. It's the coolest thing I could have imagined. Back when I was working on the script, night after night, before it had even sold, I had misty-eyed visions of what it might be like if it was made and then shown at FrightFest - but never really thought it would actually happen. I am going to get so amazingly fucking drunk that weekend, it may shatter the space/time continuum. So don't say I didn't warn you.

No idea, it'd be good to film it and put it on the DVD, but I don't know - it's just been decided, so it's all a bit vague at the moment. I haven't been told officially about the Q+A by any publicity people, so I don't know if I'm in it or not. Get all your mates to go and see it!

Cheers, everyone - Chris, it'll be out on the 25th across the UK, if not, then it'll be London on the 25th, then rest of UK the following week.

Jellybean: I know that so far the distribution rights have been sold for USA, France, Spain, Germany, Italy, Canada, Southeast Asia, and Latin America - last I heard, they were working on Japan and Australia, so it's fairly certain it'll be out over there.

I find the horror genre interesting, I don't enjoy it, but I find it interesting. It has this cult edge about it, but still with a mainstream appeal. I can't think of any other genre that manages to do both. It always seems to move forward, pushing the boundaries and coming up with new ways to scare you.

So, I'd like to know, what makes a good horror flick? What do you hope to see at this FrightFest? What gets your adrenaline pumping or your flesh crawling?

Bill: Cheers, pulp bloke! Official word on the USA release is a vague "late this year or early next" - I reckon after the DVD hits over here, my bet is December.

Dan: I guess it does because it has to - it's all been done before, so you have to keep coming up with newer, more inventive ways of killing people or scaring them. That's what I mainly look for - a combo of the new and improved, with a healthy dollop of the same old stuff that you come to expect and look forward to. Like the old mirrored cabinet thing - everyone knows that the killer will appear in the mirror behind the victim, so you have to play around with it. But you have to do a mirror gag of some kind, it's a classic. And of course, yes, Severance has one...

Wow, what a wonderful feeling it must be. I've only done a bit of horror fiction but have toyed with the idea of converting one or two to screenplay format and submitting them - somewhere! How vague am I, really? But a success story like yours gives heart. And presumably various other body parts too.

Congratulations, and I hope the night is all you've ever hoped for. Try and get someone to follow you around with camera and notebook, because if you're that hammered you won't remember a bit, and you'll REALLY wish you could!

Just from a business point of view I think its vital to launch at film a 'specialist' festival. All the audience members instantly become your marketing department and tell their genre buddies - who tell their mainstream mates. And so it spreads!

Andy: Will be doing a post on this soon (was supposed to do it ages ago...), but the short version is: Film company buy my script, give me notes. I do new draft incorporating their notes. Director and producer come on board, give me their notes, I do new draft incorporating those. We work on it at the same time for a while, then it's Real Movie Time, as the director does his own pass, adding stuff, changing stuff, deleting stuff (Delete!), editing it down, prepping for filming, etc. In this case, it resulted in a shared credit, it doesn't always though, depends on the situation.

I'll go into proper detail later, if I can ever get around to it, as I want to explain about drafts and revisions and credits and things like that. I may have to split it into different sections. It's too long already, and I haven't even started it yet...